Overview

At Harford Friends School kindergarten is the very beginning of a student’s educational adventure.  Children are respected, nurtured and challenged.  They learn that their questions and ideas are valued and welcomed.  We believe in nurturing a child’s natural curiosity, that learning is most memorable through hands on experiences, and that school should be fun.

Our curriculum is filled with exciting thematic units and educational components that strive to nurture a love for learning, inspire compassion, conflict resolution, community service, and develop a student’s interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.  Students begin to build the emotional and intellectual foundation that they will need for academic excellence, independent thinking and creative problem solving that will help them throughout life.  Students learn to explore, take healthy risks and master essential skills as they become active valued members in making their world a better place.

Daily schedule:

7:00-8:00           Early Morning Care*

8:00-8:45           Creative play time/ centers; open arrival time*

8:45-9:00           Snack time

9:00 -9:50          Sharing circle/ morning meeting followed by language arts block

10:00-10:50       Math block

11:00-11:30       Explorations classes (art, physical ed., music, Spanish, computer tech.)

11:30 – 12:30     Recess, lunch, rest/ nap time

12:30 – 1:15      Science 2x/ week; social studies 2x/ week; Meeting for Worship 1x/ week

1:25 – 2:00        Reading, end-of-day circle, library

2:00-3:00           Outdoor/ gym group games*

3:00-5:00           After School Care*

Curriculum:

Our overarching year long theme is “What can I do?”  Students explore many questions.  Who am I?  What makes me special?  How am I alike and different from others?  What are the parts of my body?  What can I see, hear, smell, feel, and taste?   Friendship, community, equality, and integrity are all explored.

Play is a critical feature to advance student achievement and learning.  Learning is hands-on and project oriented rather than just direct instruction.

Having successfully completed our kindergarten program, students will…

• Develop the foundational building blocks of reading
• Read at an age-appropriate level
• Recognize and state the sounds of letters
• Write uppercase letters
• Understand sounds of first and last letters of words
• Divide three letter words into sounds
• Recognize and spell sight words
• Answer basic comprehension questions from a text read aloud to them
• Retell storylines with little or no prompting
• Count by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s to 100
• Count and estimate objects
• Exchange 1’s for 10’s and 10’s for 100
• Draw basic numbers of objects found within groups
• Use number line, manipulatives, and number grid to solve +/- problems
• Understand tallies, tables and bar graphs
• Answer simple questions based on graphs
• Use certain words of math and estimation
• Identify units of money
• Understand temperature – hot, warm, cold, sunny
• Tell time
• Know the days of the week
• Recognize basic shapes
• Recognize symmetry
• Read and write using number sequences (+, -)
• Compare and order whole numbers up to 20
• Use nonstandard tools and techniques to estimate and compare length and weight
• Understand simple patterns and functions
• Form and use appropriate questions to develop new knowledge
• Observe and explore science in the natural world
• Engage science concepts through FOSS kits (Full Option Science Program) in the following topics:
  • Trees, Animals, Wood and paper, and Fabrics
• Spend time writing in a writing workshop format and keep personal journals